Lika Kiladze is the founder of the Education Development and Employment Center. For 10 years she was Executive Director of the organization and became Chairperson of the Board in 2018.
Lika is an experienced manager with many years of working in a supervisory position. At various times, she was head of the Imereti, Guria, Racha-Lechkhumi, and Kvemo Svaneti regional offices of the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Social Affairs of Georgia. Moreover, she was a director at World Vision Georgia’s Kutaisi Community Center and executive director of the Charity Humanitarian Center “Abkhazeti”.
Lika Kiladze earned two academic degrees at the Georgian State University of Subtropical Agriculture. She first graduated from the Faculty of Subtropical Agriculture, Economics and Tourism, and also holds a master’s degree in business management. Furthermore, she has a master’s degree in engineering and biotechnology.
Throughout the years, Lika was involved in several educational programs. She has been to the United States twice: First in 2008, when she joined the organization “American Business Professionals” and learned about vocational education and how to train workforce; a second time in 2013, as part of USAID’s International Leaders Program, which was dedicated to the importance of the NGO sector and civic activism. In 2011 a trip to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania followed as part of the Social Enterprise Management Training Program and Study Tour. In 2004, as part of the German Marshall Fund Program, she studied organizational management, project management, and marketing at CC-Consultation Ltd in Hungary. Additionally, she has undergone a study program for professional managers organized by the Center for Enterprise Restructuring and Management Assistance.
Lika Kiladze is qualified as a trainer and has been sharing her knowledge and experience in organizational management, social entrepreneurship, project management, advocacy, civic activism, and resource mobilization for many years.
She is a member of the Supervisors Board of Public College “Iberia” in Kutaisi, as well as a member of the Advisory Board of the Individual and Organizational Development Project at the Peace Corps’ Georgian Office.
Lika is the author of numerous textbooks and studies. Her publications are related to project management, as well as the process and importance of EU integration. Moreover, she did research on the conditions the most vulnerable groups of our society suffer from.
In 2014, Lika Kiladze was awarded an honorary diploma from the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia for outstanding support and assistance to her compatriots displaced from Abkhazia and for her personal contribution to the restoration of Georgian-Abkhazian relations.